Random Scribblings of a Linux Enthusiast

Export a List of Installed Packages in Android

Jan 12th, 2013

Before switching to a new ROM, I wanted to keep a list of currently installed
packages on my phone for reference. There are two ways to get this done. Both
require Android Debug Bridge (adb) to be installed on the system.

Use adb to get a list of installed packages and then dump the output to a
file.

adb shell pm list packages > ~/installed_packages.txt

The file packages.xml located at /data/system/ contains all information
about the installed packages. You can backup this to a safe location